China trade talks show no progress

EXAMINER NEWS SERVICES

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, February 25, 1995

1995-02-25 04:00:00 PDT CHINA; UNITED STATES -- BEIJING - The top U.S. negotiator in talks with China to avert a trade war over intellectual property piracy said Saturday that significant progress was needed to prevent bruising sanctions from taking effect.

"There were meetings that were held last night," said U.S. Deputy Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky.

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Tit-for-tat sanctions worth more than $2 billion are due to take effect Sunday if the two sides fail to reach agreement over preventing counterfeiting of copyrights, trademarks and patents in China.

But while Chinese and U.S. negotiators sought to avert a trade war, U.S. Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary announced 26 new joint ventures.

The new ventures brought the total of U.S.-China energy projects contracted during O'Leary's eight-day business mission to this country to more than $6 billion.

China's need for international financing to meet the dramatic rise in its demand for energy appeared to outweigh its frustration with U.S. demands for fast improvements in its protection of copyrights, patents and trademarks.

China is expected to need from $200 billion to $300 billion in financing to double its output of electricity over the next 15 years. U.S. firms hope to win a large share of that business.

The negotiations between Barshefsky and China's Foreign Trade Minister Wu Yi focused on preventing piracy of U.S. movies, music and other intellectual property. The United States says piracy of computer software, compact discs and other products costs American companies about $1 billion a year.

Among other demands, the United States wants China to close 29 plants in south China that U.S. officials say produced 75 million pirated compact discs last year.

The United States has threatened punitive tariffs that would double the price tag on more than $1 billion of imports from China if no agreement is reached by Sunday. China has promised to retaliate with sanctions of its own.&lt;

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